BALTIMORE—What began as a little blip of a slump last weekend against the St. Louis Cardinals — back-to-back shutouts shrugged off as merely a case of running into a couple hot pitchers — has grown into much more of a pressing concern for the Blue Jays, who lost for the fifth time in the last six games on Thursday night.

Despite a mostly solid start from Mark Buehrle, the Jays’ offence looked listless once again as they fell 4-2 to the Orioles at Camden Yards. With the victory, Baltimore cuts the Jays’ lead atop the American League East to 3.5 games.

“(Buehrle) kept us in there and gave us a chance, but we couldn’t get anything going offensively,” said Jays manager John Gibbons.

After averaging more than five runs a game for the first 62 games of the season, the Jays have scored just nine times in their last six contests as their once-fearsome offence continues to struggle. The Jays couldn’t have picked a worse time to go cold as Thursday marked the first of a pivotal 10-game road trip that begins against a couple of division rivals in Baltimore and New York, who are both beginning to breathe down the Jays’ necks.

But Buehrle, a veteran of 15 seasons who has won a World Series and experienced all the ups and downs of a 162-game season, preached patience and resolve for the slumping club.

“We can’t forget we’re 10 games over .500 and we’re still sitting in first place,” he said. “We’ve played like crap over the last week and we’re still in a pretty good spot. We’ve got to keep that confidence in knowing that we’re still a good team and we’ve struggled, but we’re still right there.”

Toronto managed just five hits against hard-throwing Orioles starter Kevin Gausman — one of Baltimore’s top pitching prospects — who was making just his third start of the season.

“As hot as we were we knew we’d cool off sooner or later, but it’s been really magnified now,” Gibbons said. “We’ll get it going, we’re too good an offence.”

Edwin Encarnacion, who enjoyed an otherworldly month of May, has fallen back to earth in June. He went hitless for his third straight game on Thursday. But the Jays as a whole are hitting just .240 this month, with an abysmal slugging percentage. They had just two extra-base hits on Thursday and extended their homerless streak to four games.

Thursday also marked the eighth consecutive game in which the opposition has scored first, and the fourth straight game in which the Jays allowed a first-inning home run.

Those early runs against are deflating, Buehrle said.

“When the offence is struggling to score runs, as soon as that two-run homer, back-to-back homers, whatever it is, it kind of seems like it’s taking the wind right out of our sails. So we got to do a better job of going out there and throwing up zeroes and giving some confidence to the whole team,” he said. “When we were winning, we’d give up two runs in the first we’d bounce right back and say, ‘Who cares, we’re going to score.’ Right now, that’s not happening and we’ve got to do a better job of throwing up a zero in the first few innings to give us a chance to score a run here or there just to build some confidence and get us going.”

Buehrle, who was taking a second stab at his league-leading 11th win, held his own on Thursday, giving up four runs on eight hits and a walk. It was just the second time this year the 35-year-old southpaw has allowed more than three runs.

Baltimore took a 2-0 lead in the opening frame when Delmon Young, who has hit Buehrle well throughout his career, clubbed a two-run homer to left field. Baltimore added another run in the second when Manny Machado — who is allowed to play while he appeals his five-game suspension for intentionally throwing a bat on Sunday — hit a lead-off double and was cashed in with a sacrifice bunt and a single.

The Jays started to claw back in the fifth inning when Juan Francisco snapped an 0-for-15 drought with a double to lead off the inning, then was bunted over and singled home by Melky Cabrera. But Baltimore tacked on in the seventh, combining a pair of doubles by Jonathan Schoop and Nick Markakis to plate another run. Jose Bautista doubled and stole third in the eighth, scoring on Edwin Encarnacion’s groundout, but that was all the offence the Jays could muster.

Meanwhile, a couple of injured Jays continued to work their way back into the lineup.

Colby Rasmus, who has been out the last month with a strained right hamstring, began a rehabilitation assignment with Triple-A Buffalo on Thursday night, serving as the designated hitter. He singled, walked and struck out in his three plate appearances. Rasmus will play five innings in the outfield on Friday and DH again on Saturday before the club re-evaluates his status, Gibbons said. Barring a setback, he could rejoin the Jays on Tuesday in New York.

In his second rehab outing for Double-A New Hampshire, Sergio Santos gave up a home run to the second batter he faced, but retired the other three. He is likely to make at least one more outing before returning to the Jays.

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